“Ulster Unionist Leader Mike Nesbitt has again called on the Minister for infrastructure, Chris Hazzard, to ask his departmental engineers for their opinion as to what Northern Ireland’s road priorities should be, following the Minister’s failure to answer the question.
Mike Nesbitt said:
“I wrote to the Minister for Infrastructure to ask “what are his departmental engineers’ road priorities, until 2021.’ That is a very straightforward question one might think, but unfortunately in his five paragraph response the Minister managed to avoid answering it.
“My intention was - not surprisingly - to find out what the Department of Infrastructure’s own engineers regarded as the main road priorities.
“Given the fact that 100,000 vehicles per day use the York Street Interchange, which is described as the single biggest blockage in Northern Ireland’s transport system and is the source of major congestion.
“The Minister for Infrastructure has made it clear that the York Street Interchange is not his top priority in terms of road schemes and sought to blame uncertainty surrounding Brexit. That is as maybe, but I am still very keen to find out if the experts in the Minister’s Department share his view that the York Street Interchange is not a top priority.
“It is not good enough for the Minister to blame Brussels - he needs to ask his engineers for their professional judgement as to what the main road priorities should be. It is a simple question and it requires a simple answer.”